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Lopez is a real mean bastard, but I voted for Grenier. She’s the sneaky kind of bully who is harder to identify and stop.
I agree. However she’s gone, and Lopez is still beating up on people every day. His readership is way down, but he is purposely trying to leave a legacy for his victims on the internet. For example, when people google Dr. Dagwan, they find all this B.S. and filth. That’s Gary’s game, and it’s going to come back at him ten fold. He’s just too self obsessed to realize it yet.
Lopez and DeMayo tied for first place? I thought Lopez would win by a landslide. When are you closing the poll?
I think I’ll just let it run for awhile. I’m pretty busy at the moment, and need a break from all the negativity this type of blogging attracts. Will announce a few days in advance of closing poll so folks can get their votes in.
The stories about Maria DeMayo got thousands of hits. Lopez’s restraining order posts didn’t get half that much. Seems the old man is old news, and folks are tired of his crap. He’s got nothing to do, and all day to do it. Hence the piles of complaints that go nowhere. Sigh.
Taryn:
Why don’t you try doing a positive post for a change? Say like doing a post on the eight councilors the other night who voted to jam it down the throats of Chirigotis, Joakim, Barton and the lates loser on the councilor, June Daly.
Or did you miss that one Taryn? In case you did miss that one, Joakim and crew were up to their old tricks again, trying yet one more time with another lame and feeble attempt to curtail public comment. Credit should be given to the FOUR NEW COUNCILORS plus councilors Canedey, Dagwan, Tinsley aand even Tom Rugo.
Give credit where credit is due and for Joakim Barton, Mr. DICTATOR Chirigotis and Daly to attempt to take away people’s voices is reprehensible to say the least. pitiful might be the better word. Like this or not Taryn, it is a very sad for Barnstable that we still have idiotic councilors like a few of these people and they have no right to take away people’s right to speak, especially when some of us have gone there for YEARS and never get any answers. In a private corporation, these lame asses would have been tossed
out the door years ago. But then again, this is, after all, THE town of Barnstable.
Last, when anyone looks at the gross mismamagement of this town over the last ten years, like this one or not as well, it is your latest hero John Klimm who ran our town into the ground, with help from a bunch of idiots who call themselves ‘councilors.’
Like I said, give credit to these councilors for what it’s worth. At least they saw and understood democracy as it IS SUPPOSED TO BE! Besides some of them were PELTED with many phone calls about their plans of dictatorship. Fred Chirigotis IS NOT GOD and he does not OWN this town. Mr. ARROGANCE needs to be fired! I am not sure who is worse: HIM or JANET JJOAKIM!
By the way, I should have mentioned those FOUR new councilors who DID the right thing and voted FOR DEMOCRACY: Councilor Jen Cullum, James Cote, Jessica Rapp-Gressetti and Michael hersey. THANK YOU TO THEM ALL!
John,
Maybe it’s time for another recall in this town as Fred needs to be stopped.
I’ve had it with your bogus characterizations of my posts, John.
Re-read what I said about John Klimm. The guy is smart – a whole hell of a lot smarter than you or your dark hero Low-ped.
Most successful politicians are skilled at working the system, and have a certain amount of charisma/X factor. Klimm has all that going on, AND, despite the fact he’s not an elected official, voters continue to see him as the MAYOR of Barnstable. I never applauded that fact, I simply acknowledged and marveled at it. You’re just too damn stupid to understand any type of subtlety or sophistication going on around you.
As much as we’d like them to be, issues are rarely black and white.
Janet Joakim was very active in putting the spin on “the Crocker Six” imagery, and dim-witted voters bought into it hook, line and sinker. However I am glad Crocker is gone, because he played games with several important elections in the past, like Joakim’s recall election, and the Oct. 13th, 2009 ballot question. Both would have succeeded if they were scheduled with the general elections, as strongly recommended by our elected town clerk.
Joakim will be gone in a few years, and largely unemployable. She is one of those people who will never change, and karma is going to bite her, hard. Crocker was a fool to bail her out TWICE, and he will likely have an opportunity to repay her some day for her backstabbing ways.
Your friend Lopez is even worse than Joakim. At least Joakim eventually figured out that going after the child of a non-public figure was a bad idea.
Your support of that filthy animal puts you next to him and Joakim as my least favorite people in Barnstable.
If you truly had any integrity, you’d publicly bash him, like you bash everyone else, for his racist attack on Dagwan, and his juvenile tales about my innocent child.
You point your hypocritical trigger finger at nearly everyone in town, but remain silent when innocent women and children are being abused by the old toothless garbage mouth of C’vlle.
I’ve allowed you to come on here and have your say, but I’m tired of your foolishness. You praise councilors for a no-brainer vote today, but next week you’ll be calling them all criminals. HO-HUM.
You claim that no one reads my blog, yet you and hundreds of others log in here every day. Why bother? I would be perfectly happy never to hear from you again, John. Any friend of Gary Lopez is no friend of mine. Perhaps you don’t understand the intensity of parenthood, but Lopez does. He has worked hard to protect his adult children but happily assaults my grade schooler to get his kicks. At 77, his legacy of being a bully and a racist is already carved in stone. He’s got little left to lose.
John Julius is just a guy who carries Gary’s water to town hall every other week because in addition to being a sloppy thinker, Lopez is a sloppy public speaker.
My New Year’s resolution is to stop suffering fools.
Don’t go away mad, John, just g o a w a y.
@Butch, formerly “No Fan” – I was prepared to recall both the goat and the witch had Norman been dragged to a recall election, but that organizer couldn’t even get the few signatures necessary to pull it off.
As usual, Joakim overestimated her influence on voters and her fellow town councilors. Her letter to the Patriot amplified her delusional thinking – as if she could persuade people to stop reading the paper.
In less than a month she’s asked voters to stop reading blogs, the newspaper, and listening to taxpayers at public comment. Apparently she believes the only person we should listen to is Janet Joakim!
There two reasons I suggested a recall of just Fred this:
A)The way he runs the town council meeting and treats people at public comment
B) The recall would act as a shot across both his bow and Joakim’s while only requiring one recall effort.
Also concerning Janet being gone in 2013 better think again. According to the “From Your Councilor” column in last weeks Barnstable Patriot, written by Jan Barton, the council is going to discuss changing the council term limits. The only councilor who would benefit from a change is Janet Joakim she is the only councilor presently serving a third 4 year term. According to the column in the paper the discussion is being planned for sometime in the Spring after the council deals with the budget.
The organizer of the Norman recall successfully completed the recall affidavit then pulled the plug after the recall petition pages were issued by the town clerk. From what I have heard the recall effort was allegedly stopped by Janet Joakim and Mary Lyons because they could not get it on the November 8, 2011 town ballot. The recall organizer wanted to go forward be she felt she could get the signatures but could not get Barnstable Coalition for Fair Government to back the effort if it required a special election. Mary Lyons was the chair of the BCFG with some help from Janet Joakim
That makes no sense. Do the math. It never stood a chance of getting on the November ballot. Even if it did, turnout in P12 was 6.59% – a long way from the necessary 20% for successful recall.
Why are you trying to pound sunshine up everyone’s backside here? The recall organizer, Stephanie Adams, didn’t have enought support within the precinct, with or without the November election, and she admitted it. She said she was just trying to “make a point”, but she wasn’t very convincing.
If you think a majority of any size will support longer term limits, it is you who need to think again. Besides, Janet Joakim is hated, and I mean really hated, all across town. I got calls from people in every single precinct wanting to know why they couldn’t vote to recall her when she was president of the council. How do you think I was able to get people to sign her recall papers FIVE TIMES? She’s never won by a large margin in her precinct, like most other councilors. Folks in her precinct would vote for a dead guy before they’d vote for her.
Barton was not talking about term limits for councilors, but rather, “council leadership”, referring to the problem the goat has created by not graciously allowing another councilor to serve as president after two years, as has been the custom since we adopted this circus form of government.
Taryn:
“Council leadership?” Huh? In Barnstable? Has there ever been such a thing? Hardly. As you know, over the last ten years especially there has been no such thing. The town has been run by a dictatorship thru Klimm, the late Town Atty Bob Smith and his gang of morons and a host of councilors like Crocker, Joakim and now Mr. president Freddie Chirigotis who thinks he is the world leader. The guy is the biggest arrogant ass on the planet, period.
And the more people who come to realize this, maybe we can all get it fixed….
Someone mentioned recall about him. Maybe not yet but if he continues his dictatorship ways, then maybe, yes, by all means.
It is so sad that we have had to put up with these dictatorships now in our town for how long?! And like I said, it was all Klimm who started all this, and like some things in life, monkey see, monkey do. Which is the WAY in Barnstable. All the dep’t people do it…. Geiler, the building dep’t heads, the Growth Mgt heads and on and on and on
Hopefully anyone who reads this will continue to watch and help us all try to fix these idiots who think that they OWN our town– like Klimm, like Chirigotis, like Joakim, like Town Atty Ruth Weil and a few others. They are nothing more than a bunch of arrogant losers but yet they continue to steamroll over the residents here like they own our town.
There is some small talk of getting a tax assoc that I mentioned a couple years back. Perhaps if someone does start one, people might get involved. If and when this might happen, it could be the start of the general public (residents) taking our town back,
On another note, as for that so called Barnstable group for “fair gov’t”, no offense but they are nothing but one big joke…. there was no such thing. They were a small group of John Klimm hack puppets who acted like they had this big organization.. a big JOKE is all that was. AFTER the election, they have never been heard from. As for any kind of OPEN and or HONEST Gov’t in this town, there has been not an ounce since well before Klimm came to run this town in 2000, and God help us all if this loser comes back, but he could since Chirigotis is Mr. Dictator himself.
Hey you can agree with this or not, or delete it if you also want.
And one final note Taryn:
Let’s talk about friend Debra Dagwan. As you know, i have been to the podium now how many times asking for the council to HELP US GET THE SIX WELLS MOVED FROM UNDER THE TARMAC AT THE BARNSTABLE AIRPORT! The six wells are POISONING PEOPLE, period. And i have been at the podium now for seven damn long years and was NICE AS PIE for a few years, and yes, now I am pissed. WHY do I not have a right to be??! ANY PERSON WITH A HALF A BRAIN KNOWS that having PUBLIC DRINKING WELLS UNDER AN AIRPORT IS NOT HELATHY and is a HUGE HAZARD and DANGER!
So here now on TWO occasions Debra Dagwan comes out and says she DOES NOT LIKE MY TONE. HUH?! DUH!!! I have some news for mrd Dagwan. She has NO CLUE what the hell she is talking about when it comes to ANY of this and she is DOING A HUGE DISSERVICE to ALL of us by sitting idly by and doing NOTHING just like ALL the past council shave done! And Taryn, like this or not, I HAVE A DAMN RIGHT to petition EVERY DAMN COUNCILOR to HELP us fix something this DANGEROUS and HAZARDOUS! And she took an OATH to help us. Too bad Debra dagwan is clueless like all the rest of them. If she does not like my “tone’, then get the hell OFF the council.
Have a nice day Taryn and let’s see how long it takes you to ban me or delete this. Who cares?!
Your tone is the least of my concerns, John. I am sick of your finger wagging, hypocrisy, tiny little mind, big fat mouth, and mostly, your inflated view of yourself.
No one wants to work with a guy who never listens, John. Thats why you won’t get anywhere with any town official.
Have you ever tried any breathing exercises to quiet your mind? How about some pills to calm your endless rage? You really should ask a doctor about how to control yourself. They have pills for people like you.
There’s no shame in it, John. You need to learn some self control, man.
Taryn:
Now seriously, look how stupid you really sound…… Really, think about it. Here you put on your own blog…. that the reason I won’t get anywhere with any “town official” is wht? Why? Here Taryn, consider a few things:
a
1. Unbeknownst to YOU, I happen to have a bunch of PEOPLE FROM TOWN HALL WHO LIKE me, and TRUST ME, and guess what Taryn? So do those same people like and TRUST GARY LOPEZ?
Wonder WHY Taryn? Figure it out for yourself.
But first, try to understand a few things…..
1. The SOLE reason that we can’t get anywhere with these fleas is that they are a bunch of born LOSERS, again, notwithstanding four of the five new councilors, who, for now at least, I will see HOW they do… as for the rest of the councilors, they are useless.
2. Taryn: Do YOU ever remember when YOU made an almost sole attempt to recall that flea Janet Joakim? Or have you forgotton that one Taryn? And Taryn, WHY did YOU do that? Mind recalling WHY TARYN?! You ried to RECALL her because she is what Taryn? Here, for the sake of you calling ME a bully, I will be nice and only call Janet Joakim a mere ‘flea’… even tho I know she is ten more PUTRID things that I could say…..
3. Taryn, do YOU remember that YOU used to stand for DEMOCRACY with a bunch of other PATRIOTICand HONORABLE PEOPLE at the dump, post office and all over town trying to do what? We TRIED to CHANGE things for the better. We TRIED to change thing for DEMOCRACY, and YOU were there too……
Ooops Taryn, but WHAT happened? YOU MEL:TED Taryn, which is fine. No one cares, but you have a lot of nerve and NO BRAINS for making your crude and moronic statements abou MANY people in this town.
Quite honestly Taryn, maybe it is time to BLOCK me from your 4 or 5 readers. I could care less, but at least I, as well as a FEW OTHERS, INCLUDING GARY LOPEZ, are STILL HERE FIGHTING SCUM AND FILTH that we have at OUR TOWN HALL.
Taryn, be well, and why not put te block on right now? it will make you feel better, but if ANYONE needs to LIISTEN, it is YOU.
But many of us here know that will never happen.
Good day to you, and good bye
My comments yesterday were based on having attended an August 2011 meeting of the BCFG that was held at Freedom Hall in Cotuit. At that meeting, Mary Lyons explained the goals of the coalition were to remove the six who supported the buyout and bring John Klimm back as town manager. It was explained that in order to remove all six councilors, John Norman would have to be recalled since he was not up for election and that the recall would HAVE to be on the November ballot.
Yes Stephanie Adams organized the recall attempt and yes she did submit the recall affidavit which had the required 50 signatures on it. However it was submitted far to late to put the recall on the November ballot that worried the BCFG. If you look at the election results from the November 2011 town election, you will see that in the precincts with incumbent councilors well above 20% voted. Had the John Norman recall been on the ballot it might have actually succeeded. What BCFG pull the plug was making the taxpayers pay for special elections to deal with the recall
As for the term limits issue make no mistake about it Janet Joakim is hell bent on staying put. She has a short list of charter changes she want’s the council to make which include A)changing the council term limit from 3 to 4 terms, B)Abolishing the recall provision, C)Amending the section of the charter that deals with the hiring and firing of the town manager to prevent contract buyouts.
She only needs a simple majority of councilors to make this happen and she has five votes now.
Butch:
Thank you for your update. Quite SCARY is the only way to describe all this. If anyone is paying attention to all of this, on a national scale, this is in fact going on right now. Here in our own town, we have scum like Janet Joakim trying to do what? Gain TOTAL CONTROL of the town, period. For her to accomplish these three things that you mentioned is about as HORRIFYING as it gets.
And Taryn, this is your blog so weigh in as you wish but if you even have one small care about our town, then so be it.
Last, I could care less what anyone thinks but John Klimm is as big a scumbag that Joakim is! And Taryn, it is high time you get in the real world, like this or not!
Butch, again, THANKS for what you wrote. THIS IS PRECISELY WHY all this #############T gets thru in this town—- because the scum like Joakim and Chirigotis fly this crap thru without ANYONE KNOWING I HAPPENS!
You sayshe wants to increase from 3 to 4 terms. How scary if SHE were to be able to run for one more day, let alone a TERM!
2. Abolish the recall….. more TOTAL CONTROL. the damn sad truth is that this scumbag SHOULD HAVE BEEN RECALLED TWICE when Taryn tried it and when Jim Walsh tried, but the voters in precinct six were way too STUPID to even have a clue, about anything.
3. Amending the section of OUR charter about the hiring and firing of the town manager… This is about AS SICKENING as anything could ever get.
Joakim want’s to change the town manager section of the charter to prevent six figure buyouts like the one that was offered to John Klimm. I happen to agree to a point with this idea because of the insane amount of money the buyout of John Klimm could still cost the taxpayers.
As for the abolishing the recall provision, this was first considered by Jimmy Crocker back in late 2008 after Taryn tried to recall Joakim. The reason it did not happen then is that Richard Clark and the charter commission were including a tougher recall provision in their charter which ultimately failed. When the attempt to recall Greg Milne happened Jimmy Crocker once again wanted the council to consider abolishing the recall provision. However the discussion never got off the ground as things between Crocker and Chirigotis began to sour. This is when Joakim decided to merge abolishing the recall provision with her other charter changes but she chose to wait it out while Richard Clark tried to put his charter back on the ballot. Now that that charter is dead in the water and a new council is in place she has a clear path so to speak.
Butch
Let me ask you a question: Would you support our town going to a Mayoral form of Gov’t like thousands of town residents and voters wanted? It was the flea Richard Clark himself who submarined this and screwed the voters, bigtime.
In any case, if the people wanted, they could force an Open Mtg of the Voters and tell the council that WE DEMAND to go to an ELECTED MAYOR. This way the FLEAS of the world like Joakim and the idiot Fred Chirigotis would not have to consume their valuable time with their NONSENSE like WASTING TIME on worrying about saving taxpayer money on buyouts.
BESIDES, ANYONE with HALF A BRAIN and INTEGRITY would have told the scumbag Klimm to SHOVE IT and he should have been FIRED for what he did in those executive sessions! He BROKE THE DAMN LAW and VIOLATED our town charter which is TRUE GROUNDS FOR HIS FIRING. But was thee even ONE councilor with the BRAINS or integrity to FIRE KLIMM’s ass? Sure, right, think again.
There is not one person on the town council who gives a damn about what Gary Lopez says anymore, John. I don’t have to scream in capital letters to make my point. Gary is obviously suffering from senility, and he’s real angry about it. Anger is what you guys have in common. When possible, I prefer to handle the bad guys in a way that doesn’t destroy my credibility.
You obviously don’t realize it, but you and Lopez have no credibility. That’s what happens when you cry wolf every other minute, John.
The new councilors will soon figure out that Joakim returns favors with a knife to the back. She only calls when she wants something. I’m not surprised she wants to “stay put”, as no one else would have her.
As “No Fan” you came on here “Butch” and tried to sell me on countless baseless rumors. Joakim thinks because she succeeded in selling voters on the idea that a group of “bad guys” fired “the mayor”, that she can put a gag in the mouths of her employers – the taxpayers – or write her own job description. I’ve seen her get carried away with her false sense of power before, and she still has the scars from getting bit in the backside from those days.
You may think you’re on the “inside” of council chambers, but what people say and what they think, especially in that place, are often the opposite.
John,
I don’t favor a mayoral form of government for Barnstable because under the home rule charter law, a mayor-council government is required to have still have a city or town administrator. You also still need a town council since a mayor would have no legislative authority or powers
This means that we would have two individuals with six figure salaries at the top in Barnstable. Besides just having an elected mayor does not and will not magically fix everything.
Taryn,
Joakim explained the charter changes she intends to make at that August BCFG meeting I mentioned before. She gave her explanation in response to a question about the idea of recalling John Norman. The person who asked the question was not comfortable with the idea of a recall given recent history of recalls in Barnstable.
You can believe me or not believe but the charter changes will be brought before the full council. Remember the idea of abolishing the recall provision has been floating around since early November 2008.
I doubt it’s legal to “abolish” the recall provision, but what they can do is make it more difficult to get a recall to the polls. Had it not been for Lopez’s outrageous incompetence in drafting the petition language, there was a good chance Joakim would have been recalled. As it was, she had the time to write her consituents THREE TIMES, as well as countless other opportunities for smoke and mirrors.
Truth be told, it’s pretty easy to get a councilor to a recall election. If Norman’s scorned woman really wanted to “make a point”, she would have gotten enough certified signatures to force a vote. Hyannis voters made their point with Milne by giving a majority thumbs down, even though they couldn’t get the necessary 20%.
Certain councilors have discussed specifying more serious grounds for recalls, and the failed charter commission suggested tighter time frames for gathering signatures. These would be reasonable changes, and they were originally suggested by Anne Canedy. Of course Joakim would love to “abolish” recalls, public comment, The Barnstable Patriot, and every other person who has her number, but that’s not going to happen.
If the new council sets priorities of self-interest over the public interest, they’re going to see more PACS, and more angry voters.
Also “Butch” there are a variety of mayoral charters which employ differing degrees of powers – like weak city councils. Mayors veto budgets proposed by city councils, and so forth. You make a lot of sweeping statements that are misleading, and your agenda reeks of C’ville. Is there some reason why you don’t operate your own blog, since you have such strong opinions about how the world should turn in Barneytown?
Same goes for you, John. You keep coming here with your rantfests, but have no respect for where you are. Until recently, I have never been disrespectful to you, and I’ve given you plenty of my time. I can’t even read half the stuff you write, because it just looks like rambling nonsense. I don’t bother deleting it because I don’t bother reading it. Right now I’m pretty busy. Obviously you’re not. The water’s warm – why not go fishing, or do something you enjoy? Dirty politicians will still be here when you get back. In fact, that’s really my point these days. Corruption isn’t new. You guys scream your heads off like you’re the first people to ever notice scummy politicians – it’s ridiculous. What’s bizaare to me about the dirtbags is how transparent they are around here. Janet Joakim’s top priority for the new council was to gag public comment and abolish the recall provision? What’s next? $150K sewer betterment fees for homeowners?
Since it was first enacted Barnstable’s Home Rule Charter as been amended a number of times by various versions of the town council over the years. One the most notable amendments was the change from 2 councilors per precinct to one councilor per precinct. This was done when the number of voting precincts increased from 9 to 11 as a result of the 1990 census.
So yes the council can abolish or delete the recall provision from the charter if there is enough support. The key argument in favor of abolishing the recall provision is that it lacks a mechanism were specific cause due to actions by an elected official is required. The town manager section of the charter does in fact include specific language requiring that specific reasons or cause be given to terminate the town manager. This is one of the many problems with Barnstable’s current charter.
As for the types of mayoral charters Massachusetts only has two options; The weak mayoral charter where the mayor serves as the chair of the city council. In this charter, the executive branch is either a town administrator or town manager. The other mayoral option is called “The Strong Mayoral charter where the city council and the mayor are both elected however there is still a town administrator or manager.
Simply changing the form of government in Barnstable to a Mayoral form will be fix everything. There needs to be a complete top to bottom shakedown or reorganization if you will. There also needs to be a balance of power between executive and legislative branches so one does not become more powerful then the other. Currently in Barnstable there a serious chance of the council tilting things far too much in their favor.
The action by Janet Joakim last week was offered to bring the charter and ordinances into compliance concerning council meetings. However it was a modern day Trojan horse because it was also designed to reduce public comment. Janet Joakim and the others who supported the move hoped know one would notice what she was really trying to do, but luckily this time she was caught.
The next time, who knows?
I don’t have time to argue circles around you. Suffice it to say you are using broad language to frost over important details.
THERE IS NO WAY the council will “abolish” the recall provision. Let’s say Joakim gets arrested for drunk driving and plows into a vanload of kids. Do you really think there should be no recall provision to get rid of her asap?
They’ll amend the provision because it’s stupid to be able to recall a guy because he raised his voice at your mean mouth on the telephone – a la Stephanie Adams.
Joakim, with some help, trashed over a hundred years of experienced zoning board members to save the family liquor store from competition.
Councilors like Canedy and Munafo couldn’t see it then, but after what she did with the whole “Crocker Six” scam, they probably get it now. Joakim is the ultimate busy body – always butting into other people’s business and messing things up. Mrs. Nightengale warned that boards and committees no longer operate independently. People were seriously upset about it, but councilors didn’t want to set the precedent of recalling one of their own over an allegedly non-criminal action.
As for public comment, Joakim has been trying to stop it since that infamous Thanksgiving Day violation of the open meeting law several years ago.
Struggle for control will always be an issue – it’s part of the human condition-, but Joakim will be a put out to pasture in a few years, and perhaps we’ll see a kinder, gentler way of doing business in town hall.
“Let’s say Joakim gets arrested for drunk driving and plows into a vanload of kids. Do you really think there should be no recall provision to get rid of her asap?
They’ll amend the provision because it’s stupid to be able to recall a guy because he raised his voice at your mean mouth on the telephone”
In the case of the type of incident you describe above, the town councilor or other official would have to resign thus eliminating the need for a recall.
Where is the mechanism forcing such a councilor to resign?
More sunshine, “Butch”?
Let’s say the goat’s f-i-l is a town councilor, and gets accused of diddling children. Do you think he’d resign, merely based on the allegation? What if he’s acquitted?
The recall provision was put in the charter for the interest of the PEOPLE.
Your interest seems to be only for councilors, especially the entrenched.
Should this newish council start wasting time looking for ways to help themselves, rather than those who elected them, the generally apathetic voters will take notice.
There is no need for “mechanism forcing a councilor to resign.” as history already shows in Barnstable. In the 22 year history of the council there have in fact been five councilors who have in fact resigned for various reasons. One of those five resigned because he was facing charges over a well known local credit union scandal. He eventually went to prison for his part in that situation and lost his law license as well.
Most recently Leah Curtis resigned because she and her husband we relocating out of state. Should she have faced a recall because was no longer a Barnstable resident?
Not every issue needs to be resolved by use of force as town council history shows.
Look, Janet Joakim was COMPLETELY out of control when she took over as president of the council. She repeatedly refused to listen to reason from Gary Brown, a bunch of residents and a handful of lawyers.
Had it not been for all the citizen engagement, she would probably still be president of the council. Having the goat stuck to the chair is the next best thing for Joakim and the mob of C’ville. Chirigotis isn’t as obvious as Joakim, but he’s just as bad, and should have allowed someone else an opportunity to serve what “history shows” is a two year presidential term.
No need to recall a councilor not living in the precinct, as they lose eligibility – bad analogy – read the damn charter.
Amazing that the woman with they hyphenated name is going to vote on charter change when she’s never read the charter.
I’m tiring of your attempts to misinform my readers, “Butch”. It would be gross negligence to eliminate the public option to weed out rotten apples from town hall. They’d be real stupid to try it, but after what they tried last week, I wouldn’t put it past them.
“No need to recall a councilor not living in the precinct, as they lose eligibility – bad analogy – read the damn charter.”
The above is true in the case of Leah Curtis but the other four who resigned did so for reasons such has conflict on interest in one case and the criminal case I mentioned as the reason another resigned.
None of councilors who resigned required recalls to do so their individual situations required that they leave the council and each knew the only option was to resign. Three of the first four resignations resulted in 3 special elections to fill the vacancies while the fourth was filled by appointing a replacement.
Oh by the way the appointment of that replacement councilor reminds me that the council once had the authority to appoint replacement councilors under certain circumstances. However that authority was amended out of the charter in the mid 1990′s.
Like I said, bad analogy.
You think voters should assume that councilors would voluntarily resign if pressed, and the recall provision in the charter should be “abolished”.
I think the town council should get on with the business of the town first.
They lost six months of productivity because of all the locked horns. Amending the recall provision should be somewhere neare the bottom of their list of priorities.
If you think about it, successfully recalling a councilor is next to impossible as long as the council keeps the election date away from general elections, because if the subject simply lays low, like Milne, there’s little chance of the necessary 20% turnout.
The only time that would prove untrue is if the councilor did something bad enough to make the cover of the daily rag.
Council priorities should start with addressing the mammoth issue of water quality and wastewater management.
Now that Crocker and Milne are gone and half the council is brand new, Joakim and the goat are going to glow in the dark.
Taryn – BAN these jerks! The moron with the history lessons is little timmy higgins, and Julius just wants another place to SCREAM HIS MAGGOT HACK HEAD OFF!!!!!!
Don’t you thnk we should all be screaming for a new town manager?
“Council priorities should start with addressing the mammoth issue of water quality and wastewater management.”
For once you and I completely agree however the problem is that the council does not agree with us. Until this kind of thinking changes on the council things are more less status quo.
Tommy, I also agree with you that we need a new town manager and that issue should be at least partially dealt with on 1/19/12
Great, we all agree on something. Let’s let that positive note rest for awhile.
It’s a holiday weekend, and we’re planning some affordable recreation for the weekend. Have a great long weekend everyone!
Just thought you might want to see this story from the Cape Cod Times website concerning Barnstable’s Clerk Magistrate:
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120113/NEWS11/120119914
Butch:
Thanks for the link on the judge getting bounced. If I recall he is the same moron who heard Taryn’s case a few years back and the guy is nothing but a complete idiot and moron. In this state, the judges make up their own rules and as for the constitution? They treat it as a rag. I am glad they are getting rid of this idiot, and they need to get rid or many more of these asses. the saddest part is that these guys have LIFETIME appointments and he will only get reassigned someplace else. Sometimes these judges are like drug addicts. They merely move from one place to another. Now this ass can be someone elses problem. Too bad the voters could not VOTE these clowns in or out like in many other states. To have them APPOINTED for LIFE is sickening. Almost sounds like our town manager— the LOSER Klimm who was appointed in 2000 and if he had it his way, Mr. God would stay here for his life. And I hope people are reading the Patriot and Paul Gauvin and that story about the homeowner in Cotuit. Word is coming out now that it is also alledged that Klimm is a relative to at least two judges over tha past years. Does this surprise anyone?
Thanks again for the heads up on the clown judge and good riddance to this idiot.
John,
The guy is a clerk magistrate not a judge, they are different positions
Here is an update on the case:
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120114/NEWS/201140318
Thanks. I got TEN calls about this news in the last two days. If you check my archives you’ll see a post called “Remove Powers From Powers”.
What stinks about this matter is that, like moving a pedophile priest from parish to parish, the state is moving this abusive piece of crap to some other county, where he’ll have absolute authority over the lives of other innocent victims.
There are two major problems with the magistrate’s position in Barnstable – first, the proceedings are not recorded, which opens the door for pigs like Powers to write anything he wants about the hearing. Second, he has absolute authority – more than a judge because you can’t appeal – and is given a lifetime appointment. Too much power, and too much room for abuse of that power. Time to change the rules.
Help take this bastard out, Taryn. He cannot be allowed to ruin anyone else’s lives. I know five people who got screwed by this guy. What are the odds?
He’s one of those “southy” wise guys. Just another reason not to vote for Mitt Romney!
There was also an article in yesterday’s Boston Globe about this
From the Boston Globe:
“After he was shown copies of the complaints against him, Powers called the letter writers “crazy’’ and “mentally imbalanced,’’ the committee wrote.”
In all my experience with crazy people, this is consistently the first line of defense – “I’M not crazy! YOU’RE the one whose crazy!” Even my certifiably crazy stalker defends herself by saying those who stop her from ruining people’s lives are the ones who are crazy!
If the SJC allows Powers to serve somewhere else, there should be DAILY protests in front of that courthouse. I believe the public outcry over this wise-guy’s reassignment could be substantial enough to have him fired.
It’s bad enough that he was always late, took months to render decisions on basic small claims matters, and abused those who came respectfully before the court, but he often let abusive/drunken cops skate, and criminally charged innocent people, thereby re-victimizing the victims.
My family suffered a great deal of abuse from the Joakim camp, the neighbors and dirty cops because of Robert Powers.
My world view is forever changed because of that man. I know I’m hardly alone in my experience with the guy, and I am looking forward to any and all hearings he may have with the SJC. NOT FIRING Robert Powers would be an act of gross negligence, and every single case scheduled before him in the future (except for cops) should ask for his recusal or a change of venue, based on the fact that the guy is under investigation for, in part, abusing his authority.
There was a discussion of this by Ed Lambert on his WXTK radio show yesterday. Matt Pitta seemed to think he might be reassigned to either Orleans or Falmouth, but he was not sure.
I may call Ed about this one. He left me a voicemail message on the girls hockey disaster, saying he liked my POV.
Grenier certainly abused her power, but her victims have school choice, or, like Coach Sullivan, could walk away before the horror show went to court. I’d hate to imagine how a guy like Powers would have treated Kim. In fact, it was my experience with him that convinced me (and in turn most everyone else) that quitting was her only choice.
Orleans and Falmouth already have chief magistrates, so Powers may have to accept some sort of demotion. No matter. Transferring him should not be an option. Wherever he shows up, there’ll be trouble.